The main announcement in Budget 2020 on business rates was one of the measures to help small businesses trying to cope with the effect of coronavirus.
Since the Budget, the Chancellor has announced an increase in the cash grants available for small businesses.
Business rates and grants available to businesses in the retail, hospitality and, leisure (including furnished holiday) let sector
Business rates
If your holiday let property has a rateable value of less than £15,000 and you only have one property, then it is eligible for Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) which means no business rates. SBRR also existed prior to the coronavirus.
If your business property has a rateable value of less than £12,000, there are no business rates payable.
If the rateable value is between £12,000 and £15,000, the rate of relief is phased out from 100% to 0% with full rates payable on properties with a value above £15,000.
For 2020/21 all properties within this sector are to be given a business rate holiday, therefore no business rates will be payable.
If your property is not registered for business rates or you are paying council tax rather than business rates then no relief will be available.
There is no need to apply for the relief, this will automatically be actioned by the relevant local authority.
Grants
In addition to the rate relief, businesses with registered properties in these sectors will receive automatic grant funding for each property based on its rateable value.
- A property that has a rateable value of £15,000 and under will receive a grant of £10,000.
- A property that has a rateable value of between £15,000 and £51,000 will receive a grant of £25,000.
Again there is no need to apply for the grant, the local authority should contact you. As yet no timescale has been announced on when the grants will be paid.
As with a number of Government grants, these will qualify as state aid funding; however, they shouldn’t be caught by the relatively small limit for agriculture. The current Government guidance for local authorities refers to a €800,000 limit.
For further details, read more here or contact one of our Farms and Estates team.